Pastries in Paradise

St. Patrick’s Day is a fun celebration for many, not just the Irish. On March 17th of each year you will spot mobs of people wearing green, menus featuring corned beef and cabbage paired with Guinness infused everything, parades, and countless leprechauns, shamrocks, and pots of gold leading to rainbows. The luck of the Irish has spread and you clearly are no longer pinch proof if you do not have Irish blood. It is only fitting that I created some cookies for the occasion.

To achieve the signature look of the holiday I started with a Shamrock and Pot of Gold cutter. I used my favorite sugar cookies as the base. You can use your own favorite recipe or buy store bought dough and roll out to 1/2 inch thick in order to replicate the same look. Once the cookies have baked and cooled you can start decorating. To make these cookies you will need the following:

Shamrock Cookie Cutter

Pot of Gold Cookie Cutter

Outlining Consistency Icing

Flood Icing

20-second Icing

Green Food Color

White Food Color

Black Food Color

Gold Food Color

Gold Edible Glitter (I used Disco Dust)

Wilton Squeeze Bottles

Small Offset Spatula

After your cookies have baked and cooled, decide which pattern you want to begin with. I began with the pot of gold cookies because they had the greatest chance of bleeding and therefore required a longer drying time. If you decide to do the same, begin by preparing black outline consistency icing. Outline the pot area of the cookie with the black icing, leaving the gold portion blank. Set aside to dry. While the outline dries, prepare the black flood icing. Flood the outlined portion of the pot and use the offset spatula to fill the open space in faster. Set aside to dry completely.

Meanwhile, begin decorating the shamrock cookies. Prepare green outline consistency icing. Outline all areas of the cookie. Set aside to dry while you prepare the green flood consistency icing. Flood the shamrocks and cover the entire surface with green. Allow to dry completely.

After both cookies have had time to dry completely, add details with the 20-second icing. Divide batch of 20-second icing into two. Tint one half gold and the other with optic white. Using the optic white, outline the shamrock as shown or with whatever design you like. On the Pot of Gold, add a large backwards “C” to the right side of the pot and a large, wide “U” to the bottom of the pot. Using the gold 20-second icing, outline the remaining blank area on the pots of gold. Do not flood the blank area inside the outline. Instead make small rounds by squeezing small portions of icing and lifting the tip straight up to resemble a pot filled with coins. With the gold icing still wet sprinkle the area with edible gold glitter. Set aside to dry completely before serving.